A Ghost's Luck
by Kitane
Summary: In the process of helping a ghost leave modern day Tokyo, Kagome has to face a little-known ghost of her own. Consequently, one local demon decides that she just might be worth the effort. Kagome-Hiei. Oneshot.


Disclaimer: I hold no rights to Inuyasha or Yu Yu Hakusho. Respectively, Rumiko Takahashi and Yoshihiro Togashi hold those rights. I make no money from this fanfiction.

A Ghost's Luck

Sometimes, she smiled, you had to remember that there was more to life than what you lived.

And that was, perhaps, why she had allowed Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi to drag her off to some random amusement park in the outskirts of Japan to celebrate their graduation from high school and subsequent entrance into the college life. She hadn't wanted to go. There were so many other things that she could have been doing-shard hunting for instance, or training, or spending time with her little brother! He had begun to feel neglected, and she understood, but there wasn't much she could do about it with a bad-tempered half-demon dragging her across Feudal Era Japan.

It hadn't taken our heroine, Kagome Higurashi, very long to figure out the real reason that her friends had spirited her away to the new amusement park. It wasn't the exhilarating rides, or tasty food. It wasn't the parade noisily making its way down the street, or the haunted house, which was much too close to the real thing for her comfort.

No. It was boys. It was _always_ boys, and Kagome berated herself for believing it might have been something else for even a _second_.

These girls…were obsessed. It probably bordered on unhealthy, she mused to herself, but it was all right. She had come to accept that this was a part of her friends and that it wasn't going to go away. The only time she had a problem with it was when they were trying to match her up with someone, or when they were unashamedly ogling some poor, random soul. Like now.

"Ooohh, look at that red _hair_, Eri! I've never seen a guy that takes such great care of his hair! I bet it's soft, silky…"

"I know! And his eyes! They're that smoky green that go deep and sensuous when he's kissing you, or looking at you, or-"

"Hey you guys?" That was Ayumi. Blessed, blessed Ayumi. Kagome could have kissed her for interrupting that little tirade. Her poor, virgin ears were beginning to turn red! Or not, but they would have if Eri had continued.

"Yeah?"

"The midget beside him is glaring at us." As one, the three turned to look at said midget and shivered, sober, now, from their male induced slobber fest.

Curiously, Kagome turned to see the man that had caught their attention. He was short, yes, but he was not a midget. Oddly enough, his black hair stabbed at the sky like a proud mountain, and he had a small burst of white in the front. Automatically, her eyes scanned him for a threat and found that she could not dismiss him immediately as a civilian. He wore a black jacket that covered his shirt and halfway to his knees, where she could see loose black pants and black shoes. He could be hiding anything under that jacket, she thought to herself. A sword, guns, maybe even a bomb, though it would have to be attached to him below the waist. His stance screamed dangerous, and his eyes were sharp. A fighter, certainly, and a good one, but she didn't know how good.

And she didn't really want to find out. Instead she decided to discretely break her friends out of their little trance.

"He's not a midget." She told them quietly. Kagome watched as they blinked as one and turned to her.

"You only say that because he's taller than you, Kagome." Eri winked.

"What!"

"Yeah! I mean, you haven't grown an inch since middle school. _Everyone_ is taller than you." Yuka tacked on.

Kagome snorted. "That's not true. I'm taller than Ayumi."

"And that's why I wear three inch heels. Because it makes me taller than you!"

Deciding that avoiding the eventual end of this conversation, boys, was best, Kagome tried a diversion. "Hey. Are you guys hungry?"

They weren't. "Well what do you want to do?"

Almost in perfect unison they turned to where the apparently gorgeous red head--Kagome hadn't thought to look at him, caught up as she was with Mr. Short, Dark, and Dangerous--had last been, only to find him gone. They sighed, pitifully, and then they faced each other to make a decision.

"We've already been on most of the rides, and we aren't hungry yet. The cutest guy around just managed to get away, and the parade's almost over. What's left to do?" Ayumi spoke up. A dark light lit up both Eri and Yuka's faces. With glee, they intoned,

"The Haunted House."

------------

"This is _so_ not a good idea," Kagome whispered to her friends. This place gave her the creeps. Something…something here reminded her of the feeling that she had once gotten from Mayu-chan, back at the beginning of her adventures with Inuyasha. That probably meant that there was an actual ghost here, and she wasn't so sure that it would be as sweet as Mayu-chan.

"Oh, you're such as scardey-cat, Kagome! It's just a Haunted House! You used to love these!"

Yeah, back before becoming a ghost myself was such a likely possibility, she thought wryly.

She trailed behind her friends dutifully, shrieking and squealing at the appropriate moments for their sake, but she couldn't shake the feeling…that cold, slithery feeling that ghosts always gave her.

Lost in thought, she didn't see them go right, and ahead of her as they were, none of them saw her go left into a corridor that, quite mysteriously, hadn't been there a moment before.

And, quite mysteriously, wasn't there now.

------------

Blinking, Kagome looked around her. Where was Ayumi? She had been right behind the girl, and now she wasn't anywhere to be seen! Come to think of it, where was _anyone?_

Suddenly, the cold in her gut slid up and settled in her heart. There was definitely some strong spiritual force here, but she hadn't seen any sign of it. Glancing around, Kagome searched for anything glowing or translucent. Everything looked normal in the small room she had somehow found and she turned to leave, vaguely disturbed.

It was only as she was turning away that she finally saw the glowing form seeping through a wall. At the same moment, another presence made itself known, one distinctly demonic in nature and Kagome was immediately on her guard.

The priestess didn't know how he got into the room when she had not seen any windows or doors near him, but she figured that it was a moot point because he was there _now_ and holding a naked blade.

It was the same man--no, demon--from the main amusement park. The black and white haired guy. He wasn't looking at her though; his gaze was fixated on the ghost, whose gaze was fixated…on her.

So she decided to pay attention to the immediate threat to her well being and wonder about Mr. Short, Dark, and Dangerous later.

The ghost in front of her was of the usual variety. Translucent, confused, and lost. He was an old man who looked like he had been shot in the forehead, probably while he was asleep as the bullet wound was exact. She felt terribly for him, as she did with all wandering spirits, and waited for the inevitable, 'You! You can see me?!' Before she talked over their woes and sent them on their way. The demon across the room did nothing, and was thus put to the back of her mind.

Predictably, the old man's eyes met hers and he started in shock.

"You! Come back to finish the job, have you? Well you won't get me! You can't touch me! I'm invincible now!" the old man pointed and shrieked and eventually laughed maniacally.

"No." Kagome murmured, effectively surprising both the demon and the old man.

The demon on the other side of the room watched quietly, dangerously.

"Then…then what do you want?! You're not a-a death god are you?"

"No," Kagome said quietly, "I am not."

"Then why can you see me? Why are you here?" He wasn't as scared now, but he seemed more curious.

"A good question. Why are _you_ here?"

"I'm…I don't…know. Do you know?" he was calm now, and he seemed the lost, confused soul she had seen at first.

"I do. But you have to figure that out for yourself. What is the last thing you remember?" Kagome had found out long ago that she could not simply tell a ghost that it was dead and to get over it and leave. Each spirit had to come to terms with their death, and unfortunately, it was a different process each time. Sometimes all the spirit needed to do was admit that they were dead and they could move on. More often, the spirit felt they had left unfinished business behind or they wanted revenge. Kagome heard a sligh _shing _and knew that the demon had sheathed his blade.

"I was…with the woman. My wife-she was a wonderful lady. Do understand. Absolutely incredible, she was. I loved her to no end. I wonder where she is." He glanced around, as if trying to search her out.

"Not here." Kagome said quietly.

"Oh. Is she coming back?"

"No. You have to go to her."

"Oh." he looked downcast.

"When was the last time that you saw her?" Kagome walked nearer to the ghost and saw the demon, still across the room, tense. He didn't move closer, though, so she said nothing.

"Yesterday. No. Last week?" He stopped talking and she could tell that he was thinking. "It was…a long time ago. A very long time ago. I hadn't realized. Everything blurs together. It was," Kagome listened intently, giving him her undivided attention. "so very, very long ago." he whispered now.

"You miss her?" she had become so focused on the hurting old man in front of her that she did not see the demon come closer. She herself was standing beside the ghost, nearly in the middle of the room. The demon had positioned himself beside the only exit, the door to freedom.

"Gods, yes. Yes, I do. I would give anything to see her sweet smile again."

"Would you like me to take you to her?"

Kagome could not see, but the demon by the door shifted in surprise.

The old man turned to her, gleefully. "I would--" and then his face quite suddenly darkened, pulling into itself. The pain that sank into his features was only illuminated by his unnatural glow. "No." He whispered. "No, I can't."

"Why not?" Kagome frowned in surprise.

"She'll be-I can't-If he comes, the woman will be hurt. He'll kill her just to get to me. He'll kill her only because he can!"

"Who?" Kagome asked. "Who would hurt her?"

"That man! That _demon!_" the old man seemed to be practically frothing at the mouth with the thought of his wife being hurt. Sickeningly, the slow trickle of blood that had been coming from the wound in his forehead turned into a gush of semi-translucent liquid, dripping down his face and staining his previously clean cloths.

The demon behind her, still completely silent, was paying strict attention to the old man's words. His body was taut and his red eyes intense.

"Did you know his name?" Kagome asked him. She thought about sending a wave of calming energy to him, but was afraid that she would prematurely send him into the afterlife. She knew she could calm demons without purifying them, but she had never tried calming a spirit before.

"Yes." He gazed off to the side, abruptly calm again.

"Will you tell me?"

"Yes."

But he didn't seem to be very forthcoming with the information. He just absently stared off into space. Kagome was not about to pry, because she knew that if she had tried to pester her own grandfather for information he would clam up, simply because he was old and cantankerous.

The demon behind her shifted again, impatiently. When did he get there? She wondered. But she had more important things to worry about. The old man turned to her and his gaze was steely, determined.

"His name was…Jomei."

Kagome felt a chill run down her back. No. _Please_ no. She thought. Not…not…

"Jomei Higurashi."

------------

Her mother and father had been married for eight years when they came. The authorities had arrested her father and he was to have been executed on the charge of multiple accounts of manslaughter. Her mother had had her in the second year of their marriage, and Souta had been born barely a year before her father had been arrested. They had told Souta the truth about his death. That her father had been killed in a car accident.

But it hadn't been all of the truth. Jomei had escaped from the jail three days before he was to be killed, and had been headed to their house. He hadn't made it.

Kagome still remembered that it was snowing that night. Her father was hit by a car and killed instantly. She was six years old.

She hadn't heard his name since she was ten years old, and this…this was something she never thought would happen to her. Demons, wells, priestess powers were all well and good and the craziest answers were to becoming the norm for her.

But to meet the ghost of a man her father had killed at least twenty-five years ago…

She pushed it aside and told herself that she would think on it later. It was a little too much for her to bear right now.

"You don't need to fear him anymore." Kagome told him, her voice thick with emotion.

"No? You think so? He was an awful man. Killed without remorse, he did. Amazing that he was never caught. It wasn't like he was quiet about it."

Kagome's heart beat painfully hard in her chest. "No. You don't need to fear him."

The old man must have realized that she wasn't just trying to give him empty words. He looked at her. "You know, you kind of--"

Kagome didn't want to hear it. She didn't want to be told how much she looked like her father, because she knew it. Her black hair and her blue eyes both came from her father. She had to fight back a bitter laugh. The deep midnight of her hair, a mere shade darker than Kikyou's, and the blue eyes that her father gave her were the only difference between herself and Kikyou. The only things that kept her from being identical to a dead, cold woman were features that linked her to a dead, cold man.

She had to bite back a hysterical laugh.

"Yeah." Kagome interrupted him, not letting herself listen or giving the demon behind her any chance to know what would have been said. "I know. But look. Jomei? He's dead. Long dead."

The old man stared at her intensely. She felt an even more intense stare burning into her back. "You sure?"

"Very. He was killed thirteen years ago."

The old man's face lit up. His relief almost made her feel better for it. Almost. "Then the Mrs. is safe. That's all that matter, then. I loved her, you know. A wonderful lady, that woman was."

Kagome knew that now was the time to send him on. She pushed aside the thickening emotions, cloying, suffocating things in her breast, and stood straighter. "Sir?"

"Yes, m'dear?" he smiled at her in such a carefree manner that Kagome felt her heart lighten, just the smallest bit.

"Would you like to go to your wife now?"

"Could I? Could I truly? I've missed her, you see. Loved her till the day I died, I did." and then he looked at her again. "The…day I died."

Kagome said nothing.

He gave a small, peaceful smile. "The day I died, indeed. Yes. Take me to the Mrs., would you, m'dear?"

Kagome found it in her heart to give him a smile and took hold of his hands. The demon behind them did nothing, but he was still watching, silent.

Kagome concentrated on the man in front of her and knew that he would no longer need her help to leave this plane and go to the one he belonged in now. But she would be there anyway, because she needed to be. Perhaps she, of all people, needed that finality.

------------

After the last vestiges of his spirit disappeared, Kagome stood and turned around. The short demon was there, watching her. She wondered if he would stop her, but decided she didn't feel like worrying about it.

He didn't stop her, but when their eyes met he nodded.

And this single acknowledgment made her feel, for some reason, as if it was all okay. This was nothing she had not had to deal with before. It was just a ghost, with a past that happened to interact with her own. No, not even that. It was just a man, whose suffering she could take away. A person she could help.

And that was okay.

She smiled.

That was okay.

------------

Kagome met up with her three friends outside of the Haunted House, and told them a sufficiently satisfactory story about how she got distracted and turned down the wrong path, met a cute guy, and left.

While they were not very happy with her having simply _left_ the cute guy, they were so happy about her having found one in the first place that they did not notice how quiet she was on the way home.

Kagome was quite relieved when her shrine came into view. She loved her friends dearly, but it had been a long day, and all she wanted to do was curl up in her bed. She bid them goodbye at the base of her stairs and trudged her way up, dutifully noticing that she needed to sweep the steps the next day. She didn't need to go back to the Feudal Era for another week and a half, so she had time.

She hugged her mother, ruffled her brother's hair, and disappeared into her room. It was only after she had changed into her nightclothes that she realized there was a demon outside, relaxing in the tree beside her window…and it was _not_ a certain half demon come to drag her across Feudal Japan. No, this was the demon that she had indirectly spent half of her afternoon with today.

She sighed woefully and opened her window.

"Yes?" She asked quietly. He was seated, quite comfortably, in the crook of the branch and trunk, which was even with her window but a few feet away. One eye cracked open and she couldn't find it in herself to be irritated at him.

"Kagome Higurashi?" She found that she quite liked his voice. It wasn't a liquid tenor, or pleasantly booming bass. He spoke with a quiet will, and a dangerous intensity. She shivered.

"Yes." She couldn't for the life of her tell what this demon was thinking.

"Sleep. You will be safe this night." and then his eyelid shut and she was left staring out a window in her nightclothes at a demon in her tree that, for all appearances, was steadfastly sleeping.

Deciding that there was nothing for it, Kagome nodded even though he wouldn't see it, and shut the window. She could do worse than a cute demon keeping watch outside her window.

She chuckled in a mixture of humour and irony. Yeah...she could do much worse.

------------

Crimson eyes watched the strange woman in the window get ready for bed. Yes, she would be safe this night.

And many, many more.

_Fin_

Thank you for reading! This is my first fanfiction, so I'm kind of testing the waters. Should I continue writing or just leave it here?

_Kitane_

Friday, February 22, 2008. This is a revision fixing some grammatical errors and choppy wording. I would also like to clarify my statement above. My intentions were never to make this a chaptered story. Perhaps a sequel, but I would never complete a chaptered story. This would disappoint a lot of people and in turn, make me feel guilty. What I meant was that I did not know if I should continue writing in general or just leave it here and move on in life. Because of everyone's wonderful words and encouragement I can only guess that you guys wouldn't mind too much if I continued to write. . Thank you so much for taking the time to read and review (Those really brighten my day, loves.)

_Kitane_


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